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Thursday, July 21, 2011

I Bought A House

I wanted to blog sooner, but life has gotten in the way.
Or to be more accurate, home buying and renovating has gotten in the way.Especially renovating - everything seems to be taking longer then I thought it would.
I have been typing this little by little while on break at work but haven't been finished with it or even gotten online since last week. (Except to play Scrabble on my IPOD which I am addicted to.)

I closed on Friday - July 15th at 5 PM!Whoo hoo!
I am so happy!
Still doesn't seem real. Very hard to believe I own a house. I think it will feel more real when I actually move in and all my stuff is there. I cannot wait to be out of this smoke smelling apartment!I will list a time line of everything that has taken place, but will go into more detail with some items in later blogs. I want to make sure I document this for myself though before I forget. And I know Matt and family are anxiously waiting to hear about and see the progress on my house.

Before going to the closing me, my mom, and my brother met my realtor at the house for the final walk through. We looked around, talked for a few minutes and then went on to the closing. Thankfully everything looked to be the same as it had prior to closing.
Once at the closing office we went into a room where the seller, his wife (I assume) and his realtor were already waiting. We all sat around a table with us on one side and them on the other. I was a little nervous - not sure why though since I was already prepped on the process and already knew all the dollar amounts. My hands were shaking at one point so I placed them under the table onto my lap.The closing was as fast as I was warned it would be. It was sign here, sign here, initial here, sign here. When the lady went to make copies of everything we signed the seller gave me the house keys and the check to make the repairs.
They seemed like nice people. He even told me who the neighbors on the right were and how they are nice people. (I met the man that night - seemed nice.)

My realtor warned me how I probably will not get a copy of the taxes in the mail and will probably have to go to the court house(?) to obtain a copy of them for my records. After I get the copy I am to make another copy and send to my lender to make sure they are spread out within my mortgage. The taxes are the only thing that can make my house payment fluctuate year to year.

Need proof as to how wonderful my realtor is? He said he always gives all his client's a choice of getting the locks changed or a gift certificate to a restaurant. I chose to have the locks changed. The keys I received for the house - let's just say each lock had a different key. So frustrating since it took me FOREVER to open the door! The locksmith came yesterday and made all my locks on the house open with one key and the garage has a separate key. So nice! Sometimes it really is the little things that make all the difference. :)

After closing my mom took us out to eat. We then went to MY house to drop a few things off and look around again.
Wyatt even took his first #2 at his new house! He seemed very happy to be there but I am sure he has no idea this is his new home. (He hasn't been there since then due to it being a mess though.)

Saturday the real work began!
We ripped out ALL the carpet, vinyl flooring, and most of the wood floors. (Except in the bathrooms and laundry room for now.)
OMG - the wood floors! Not only do the wood planks lock, whoever installed them also glued and nailed them in! And when I say nails, I mean like 12 nails per board!

Before - Hallway

After

Some boards were too hard to get out so we had to buy a small handheld saw.

My brother was able to get all the hardwood flooring out today. He worked at it for a few hours with the hand saw. I can only imagine how much pain his hands are in.

We loaded the vehicle with all the carpet, padding, and other flooring and threw it out.
I am glad to see it all gone! It will be even nicer once new flooring is installed!

Check out all the non-floored rooms!

Sunday we continued to remove wood floors, bent all the nails from the boards in, removed all light/electric socket plates, I decided on a few paint colors, started taping up the baseboards, and bought and unpacked all the new laminate wood flooring.
29 boxes of wood flooring!
My poor brother ended up doing most of the lifting.

Monday and Tuesday when I got off work my brother and I thought we would be able to remove all the wallpaper borders from the 3 bedrooms. Boy were we wrong! So hard!
First I tried warm water and vinegar.
Then he went to Lowe's to buy a tool to score (?) the paper and then some sort of Parannah spray that worked better then the vinegar but made my walls so dirty! I still need to clean them.
Next we tried fabric softener and warn water which worked the best.
The wallpaper must really be glued down though since it is still taking forever to be removed. As of Tuesday night we only had one room completely done and half done on a second room. I plan on working on it some more tomorrow.

I called the mold people Monday morning who said I will get a call to set up an appointment. Well by 2:30 that afternoon I still had no call so I called back. The lady said the technician will call me tomorrow. Tomorrow?!?!? I explained how I am on a tight time limit but she didn't seem to care. So of course I argued some with her. No help either. So yesterday I still had no phone call around 9:30 AM so I called the technician directly who said someone else would be doing the work and he would call me same day. Fine. No phone call by noon so I called the place again. Once again I got an attitude from the woman. After really arguing with her about how it should not take 2 plus days to even set up an appointment she said she would call the technician. Wasn't long before I got a phone call that my appointment will be this Friday.
I don't think it is nice to argue with people, but I could tell I was never going to receive the service I needed.

Oh - I didn't tell you yet.... when we pulled up the flooring we discovered mold in one of the bedroom closets and in front of the back door. Not good!
My mom even tried placing bleach on the mold in the closet and it still looks bad. Mold is NOT fun!
The past 3 nights I have also tried cleaning it up with bleach. It seems to be going away in the closet. I have not messed with the mold by the door since that wood will probably need to be replaced. Here are the before pictures:

The carpet people came today to measure and will hopefully be installing on Monday so I need to get it gone!
I would have the mold people do it, but they would have to do another estimate and then I would get a price and then I would make another appointment - doesn't work with my tight time frame. I have to be out of my apartment by Monday! I did remove the tack strip in the closet and most of the black has gone away. I think I will clean it one more time and then on Friday paint it with Kilz.

Sorry this post is so scattered - I just wanted to update you and document for my own memories. Like I previously stated, I will go into more detail and show more pictures once I am settled.

Here's what we accomplished today in the living room and hall.Tomorrow it will get another coat of paint - after I buy another gallon of paint. The walls seem to be soaking up the paint so I am assuming all the rooms will need 2 coats of paint.

About Me

Hi, my name is Jessica and I am married to my best friend, Matthew. We are mommy and daddy to our sweet 18 year old fur baby, Wyatt (who I have had since the 7th grade), and to a little guy inside my stomach who is expected to arrive on or around November 5th. We are excited to become first time parents to a human baby after so much practice with our fur baby and this blog is helping me document everything from trying to have a baby, to pregnancy, to him actually being here.
I enjoying cruising the Caribbean (will be a few years before our next one), reading and attempting to craft.